Single wall reducible carton made from a specific blank which prevents the loss of substantial material



United States Patent Josie T. Massengill 407 Luce Ave., Ukiah,California 95482 746,561

July 22, 1968 Nov. 10, 1970 inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented SINGLEWALL REDUCIBLE CARTON MADE FROM A SPECIFIC BLANK WHICH PREVENTS THE LOSSOF SUBSTANTIAL MATERIAL 2 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl. 229/51, 206/4412, 206/56, 229/38 [51] Int. Cl. B65d 5/54, vB65d 5/08 [50] Field of Search 206/44.12, 45.12, 46(Ral1), 56(A3);220/Bs; 229/51, 51(BP), 51(Div), 51(AS), 51(IS), (MB), 37, 38

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,257,068 6/1966 Wright229/14(BA)X 3,291,372 12/1966 Saidel 229/14X 3,366,304 1/1968 Peckar etal. 229/37X 3,459,358 8/1969 Adams 229/87(M)UX 2,251,283 8/1941 Johnson229/51(1S)UX 2,608,341 8/1952 Eckman 229/51(1S)UX 3,116,868 1/1964Lazure 229/51 FOREIGN PATENTS 369,441 3/1932 Denmark 229/51 PrimaryExaminer.loseph R. Leclair Assistant Examiner-Steven E. LipmanAttorney-Eckhoff and Hoppe ABSTRACT: A single-wall, collapsible cartonis provided having two or more tear strips which can be removed toprovide a carton of smaller size. in accordance with the invention,staggered end flaps are employed so that there is substantially nowastage in cutting carton blanks from a continuous web of material.

'Pate n ted Nov. 10, 1970 Sheet 4 or 2 .INVENTOR. J05/f I MASSENGILL BYW 6 ATTOR E s PIE:- 3;

Patented Nov. 10, 1970 Sheet INVENTOR J05/E I MASSENG/LL SINGLE WALLREDUCIBLE CARTON MADE FROM A SPECIFIC BLANK WHICH PREVENTS THE LOSS OFSUBSTANTIAL MATERIAL SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present inventionrelates to a single-wall carton made of cardboard or similar stock whichis reducible as the contents of the carton are used up. The carton ofthe present invention is primarily designed for use with ice cream butit will be obvious it can be used with any commodity.

When a carton of ice cream or the like is partially used, it occupies anundue amount of space in the freezer and it is highly desirable toprovide a carton which occupies a minimum amount of storage space.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cartonwith easily detachable sections so that as the contents are used up, thecarton can be reduced to a smaller size. This is desirable not only fromthe standpoint of occupying a minimum amount of space in the freezer butit also serves as a visual indicator which gives a visual signal to thehousewife that the contents of the package are about used up and alertsher to reorder. Further, the amount of air within the carton is greatlyreduced which tends to preserve the contents of the partially usedcarton.

Reducible cartons have been proposed in the past but these have used alarge amount of cardboard since it has heretofore been considerednecessary to provide a double wall thickness of cardboard in suchcartons to prevent leakage through the perforations.

It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide asingle-wall carton which is reducible as the contents are used up.

Another object of the invention is to provide a single-wall carton whichis leakproof, particularly along the lines where the carton willbeultimately severed.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a carton havingnovel end flaps whereby a plurality of cartons can be cut from a web ofstock with substantially no loss of material between carton blanks.

Other objects will be apparent from the balance of the specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of acarton embodying the invention prior to filling.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a filled carton showing the method bywhich one of the tear strips can be removed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the carton showing the method which thecarton can be reassembled in reduced form.

FIG. 4 is a view, similar to FIG. 2, showing a carton which has beenpartially reduced and with the second tear strip being removed so it canbe further reduced.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a web showing two adjacent cartons being cutfrom the web.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged partial sectional view of the wall of the cartonshowing the method of staggering the partial cuts in the carton wall.

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 showing how the tear strip separatesfrom the body of the carton.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The carton of the presentinvention is generally designated 9 and has sidewalls 11 and 13 andendwalls I5 and 17. The walls have respective top flaps 18, 19, 21 and23 at the top thereof and corresponding respective flaps 25, 27, 29 and31 at the bottom thereof. Extending around the periphery of the cartonare a first pair of parallel partial cuts 33 and 35 and a second set ofparallel partial cuts 37 and 39. Extending from the side is a broad sideflap generally designated 41 which is divided by the partial cutsreferred to into tabs 43, 44, 46, 48 and 50'.

The structure of the partial cuts is more explicitly shown in FIGS. 6and 7. Thus, the partial cuts 37 and 39 as is shown in FIG. 6 arecontinuous cuts which go about halfway through the walls. Spacedinwardly therefrom and on the opposite side are mating offset cuts 52and 53 which also extend through about half the thickness of the wall.These offset cuts eliminate the possibility of leakage.

In assembling the carton, the tabs 43, 46 and 50 would normally be gluedor otherwise suitably fastened with adhesive to the wall 11 but the tabs44 and 48-would be free. With these tabs glued in this manner, thecarton can be in a flattened form but readily assembled, filled andclosed by regular cartonfilling machinery as is well known to thoseskilled in the art. After the carton has been brought from its flatform, as is usual in shipment, to the form shown in FIG. 1, flap number29 is then turned inwardly and the flap 31 is then turned on top of it.Since the flap29 is substantially the same size as the opening of thecarton, this substantially seals the end and then the flaps 27 and 25are successively closed, effectively sealing the lower end of thecarton. In this form, the carton can be filled and then the top isclosed following the same sequence of operations as was described inconjunction with the bottom i.e. 23, 21 and then 18 and 19.

The carton is then in substantially the form shown in FIG. 2. The topflaps can be opened in known manner for the initial removal of a portionof the contents and when the contents get below the line 35, one canthen peel back tab 44 which will open the carton on the partial cutlines 33 and 35. This operation is shown in enlarged form in FIG. 7 andas can be seen, a neat tear is produced since the partial cut lines 37and 52 as well as 39 and 53 are close to each other and the carton haslittle strength with respect to layer-to-layer separation as at 54. Atthis time, the material between the partial cuts 33 and 35 is pulledcompletely out and discarded, leaving a top designated 55 and a bottom57. By partly distorting the walls of the bottom 57 inwardly as is shownin FIG. 3, the top 55 fits snugly over fresh edges of 57 making thecarton into smaller form, resulting in the structure shown in FIG. 4.When the contents have been reduced below the out line 39, one can thengrasp the tab 48, as is shown in FIG. 4 and pull it off, keeping onlythat portion of the carton which was shown below partial cut line 39 andabove partial cut line 33 so that the carton can be now reclosed to evensmaller form.

Although two pairs of partial cut lines have been shown so that thecarton can be reclosed from its initial size to two smaller sizes bypulling out the tear strips, it is obvious that only a single pair oftear lines may be provided so the carton would have one smaller sizethan the original or that more than two pairs of lines might be providedfor cartons having any desired number of reclosable sizes as thecontents were used.

As has been mentioned above, one of the features of the carton of thepresent invention is that it utilizes a minimum amount of cardboard inits construction and waste is virtually eliminated. This feature isshown in FIG. 5 where two adjacent blanks for forming the carton of thepresent invention are illustrated. In this FIG., two adjacent blanks arebeing shown cut from a web of material. In the upper blank the sides andflaps have been given the designation previously employed while thedifferentiate, the next adjacent blank has been provided with matchingnumbers but with the suffix A. Thus, referring to panel 11, it will beseen that there is a generally triangular flap 18 at the top thereof anda generally triangular flap 25 at the bottom thereof which are mirrorimages of each other i.e. the triangles face in alternating directions.In this manner, only a single cut need be made to sever the blankbetween flap 25 and its mate on the next adjacent flap 18A. It will beseen that the same relationship exists between the flap 27 and the nextadjacent flap 19A. Further, it will be seen that the short and longflaps alternate so that these too can be severed with a single cut, notwasting material. Thus, short flap 31 mates with long flap 23A whilelong flap 29 mates with short flap 21A so that again there is no wastageof material.

Although certain specific embodiments of this invention has been shown,it will be understood that these are for illustrative purposes only andthat many variations can be made in the exact structure describedwithout departing from the spirit of this invention.

lclaim:

l. A carton formed from a blank cut from a web, said blank having afirst end and a second end, each of said ends having first, second,third and fourth flaps thereon, with alternate flaps of one end having agenerally right-triangular configuration while the corresponding flapsof the other end have a complimentary right-triangular configuration,and with long and short flaps alternating therewith, Where each saidends have both a long and a short flap, and where a long flap on onesidehas a corresponding short flap on the other side, whereby adjoiningblanks can be cut from the web without loss material between the flapson adjoining blanks.

2. A carton in accordance with claim 1 wherein:

